"I've, ahh, told you that before," the shogun said, "but this time I mean it." He jabbed his finger at Sano. "Fail, and you all die!"
"I'll find her. I promise." Sano thought of Reiko, Masahiro, Akiko, and all the people whose lives depended on him. In the past, he'd always managed to solve his cases and avert the threat. Could he this time?
"If I may put in a word, Your Excellency," Yanagisawa said, "but this isn't Chamberlain Sano's fault. The real culprit is the person who kidnapped Lady Nobuko-if indeed she was kidnapped, which we don't yet know for sure."
Even in the midst of his distress, Sano noted the irony that Yanagisawa was defending him after so many attempts to ruin him. He had to appreciate Yanagisawa's efforts whether he trusted Yanagisawa or not.
"You're right, it's not entirely Chamberlain Sano's fault," the shogun said. "If you had been, ahh, doing your job all these years, there wouldn't be evil criminals around to attack my family." He jabbed his finger at Yanagisawa. "It's your fault, too!"
It was Yanagisawa's turn to look dismayed, and Sano's turn to defend his former enemy. "Your Excellency, with all due respect, Chamberlain Yanagisawa had nothing to do with what happened to your wife."
"I just said he does. That means he did!" The shogun had never been known for rationality, but his word was the law. His tearful glare fixed on Yanagisawa, his old friend and onetime lover. "You let me down. You and Chamberlain Sano must find my wife, or you'll share his punishment!"
He turned and flounced into the castle. His attendants traipsed behind him cautiously, afraid of his temper. The troops and officials departed as fast as ants scurrying into their hills. Sano, his detectives, and Yanagisawa looked at each other in mutual, dumbfounded apprehension.
"Well," Sano said to Yanagisawa, "hadn't we better get started?"
35
Two armies of samurai on horse back descended on Chomei Temple, from which Lady Nobuko had disappeared. Sano led one army, Yanagisawa the other. They and their troops stopped and questioned people, searched the temple grounds and the surrounding Mukojima district. The afternoon passed; night fell. Carrying torches, the armies fanned out in widening spirals around the temple. They went from door to door, questioning the residents, inspecting the houses. Not until dawn did Sano and Yanagisawa return to Edo Castle.
"Where is she?" the shogun demanded as they walked into his chamber. "Have you found her yet?"
"I'm sorry, Your Excellency, but we haven't," Sano said.
Lady Nobuko seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth.
The shogun pouted as he picked at his breakfast of steamed buns, noodles with prawns, and sweet cakes. Sano's stomach growled. He hadn't eaten since last night.
"Then go out and look some more," the shogun said. "Find her before sunrise tomorrow, or I'll have both your heads."
"Yes, Your Excellency," Yanagisawa said.
He looked as weary and discouraged as Sano felt. As they walked down the palace corridor, he said, "If this case is like your others, then we won't have to keep up the search much longer. With luck, the kidnapper will dump Lady Nobuko near the shrine in time for us to meet our deadline."
"That's not good enough, and you know it," Sano said, testy from fatigue. "The shogun wants her back safe and sound, not drugged and violated."
"Too bad for us." Yanagisawa added, "I didn't put Yoritomo up to telling the shogun about the connection between your investigation and Lady Nobuko's disappearance. It was his idea again. I'm even sorrier than I was last time."
"Do you believe him?" Hirata asked Sano.
They and Marume and Fukida sat in the private chambers at Sano's estate, where Sano had stopped for a quick meal. Hirata had heard about what had happened and was eager for news.
"Yes and no," Sano said. Reiko poured tea for him and the detectives, then served rice gruel with pickles and fish. Marume and Fukida, who'd been working alongside Sano all night, gobbled the food. Too hungry and in too much of a hurry to mind his manners, Sano ate while he talked. "I believe Yanagisawa is sorry for what Yoritomo said. After all, it got him in trouble, too."
"But?" Reiko said as Sano paused to swallow.
"But Yanagisawa has been behind so many plots against me that I'm not convinced he's innocent this time."
"Neither am I," Reiko said. She looked through the open partition that divided the room from the adjacent one and called, "Masahiro, don't you have a lesson now? Go!"
Sano saw their son in the other room, fiddling with his toy soldiers, and pretending not to listen to their conversation. Masahiro said, "Yes, Mother," and obediently left.
"Do you trust Yanagisawa to help you look for Lady Nobuko?" Reiko asked.
"Yes and no," Sano said. "It's in his own interests to find her, but I still think he's up to something. That's why I have to take other action besides our searching the city together."
"What kind of action?" Hirata asked.
Sano could see how much Hirata wanted to participate in it, but they both knew he shouldn't. Reiko poured Hirata a bowl of tea, all she could offer in the way of sympathy that wouldn't hurt his pride.
"Action against three people who thought they were safe from me," Sano said.
Ogita lived in a modest neighborhood in Kuramae, near his rice brokerage. The two-story houses were respectable rather than elegant, uniformly constructed with brown tile roofs, balconies shaded by bamboo screens, and weathered plank fences. When Sano and his entourage arrived at Ogita's house, Ogita and his samurai bodyguards planted themselves in front of the gate.
"Hello, Honorable Chamberlain," Ogita said. "How may I be of service to you?"
Sano had met Ogita at audiences with the shogun's officials, but they'd never exchanged more than formal greetings. Today he noticed that Ogita wore expressions like layers of clothing. The pleasure on Ogita's fleshy face overlaid apprehension.
"I want to search your house," Sano said. "Stand aside."
The apprehension rose to the surface of Ogita's features like silt in a stream stirred by undercurrents. "May I ask why?"
"I'm looking for the shogun's wife," Sano said. "She's missing, as you may have heard."
"Indeed I have." Now offense hid whatever else Ogita may have felt. "First you think I kidnapped and raped your cousin. Now you think I have the shogun's wife locked up in my house."
"Do you?"
"I'd have to be insane to do such a thing."
"Then you won't mind if I see for myself," Sano said.
Ogita stood his ground. "With all due respect, I do mind. I like my privacy." His features took on a neutral cast, his eyes alert but carefully devoid of emotion. Sano imagined this was the guise he wore when negotiating business deals.
"The sooner I'm finished, the sooner you can have your privacy again," Sano said.
"Didn't your chief retainer tell you what I said when he came to visit me? Before he murdered my servant boy?"
"He said you threatened to call in my friends' debts unless I left you alone."
"I wouldn't call it a threat," Ogita said with a false, congenial smile. He knew, as everyone did, that threatening a top official could mean death. "Just a bit of friendly advice."
"Here's a bit of friendly advice for you," Sano said. "If you call in those debts, I'll seize everything you own."
Ogita kept smiling, but his bulging double chin jerked as he gulped, and Sano could see droplets of sweat on his shiny forehead. Ogita knew the Tokugawa regime had seized property from merchants in the past, for various reasons.